"To my mind, you know, we also engage Myanmar by telling Myanmar 'Look you can't go on like this'," she said.

"Imprisoning Aung San Suu Kyi for 10 years without trial - I mean how can any country that claims to be civilised do that, though my own personal preference is to expel Myanmar from the Asean."

The tone of the parliamentarians' meeting suggests that South East Asia's democracies are losing patience with their authoritarian neighbour.

Next week's summit will be watched carefully to see whether the region's less democratic countries rally to Burma's side to help frustrate a development which might one day see their own shortcomings examined.